Climate change appears to be setting Mother Nature up to hit even harder with hot and dry conditions throughout multiple regions.

Nature doubles down on climate warming

A new study shows regions are more often simultaneously experiencing hot and dry conditions

A warming climate is causing weather woes to hit both harder and further. Stanford University scientists say hot and dry conditions are now regularly hitting multiple regions at the same time. These crop yield shrinking, food price destabilizing and environmentally catastrophic conditions are now twice as likely. Climate change has doubled the odds that a

Non-scientists can have a powerful role in advancing scientific research 
at the farm level.

Citizens and scientists

Laypeople can help drive and expand agriculture research

An international team of researchers has published a paper highlighting the potential of citizen science to address pressing research challenges in agriculture and food systems. One key to capitalizing on such efforts, the researchers find, may be to build stronger ties between citizen science and agricultural extension efforts. “We define citizen science as research in


Shrub willows, on the left, planted on marginal land adjacent to a corn crop.

Energy crops a benefit

If the land isn’t growing cash crops give energy options a shot, say researchers

There’s always some section of a farm that’s perennially too wet, too dry, or just doesn’t produce. It may be time to give up and sow them down to something like shrub willow or switchgrass, perennial bioenergy crops. That’s according to a report tabled recently at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

These two animals are both Gir cattle, but on the left is a beef animal and to the right a dairy cow.

Gene research could beef up the herd

Brazilian researchers identify 35 genes associated with various attributes

Most cattle-breeding programs have long concentrated on fast-growing traits in the calves. Now Brazilian researchers are targeting other traits, such as meat tenderness and the size of the rib-eye muscle area. They’re doing so by studying the genome of the Gir cattle breed, common in that country, and have identified 35 genes that are associated

If the entire world were to eat a healthy diet there simply wouldn’t be enough fruits and vegetables to go around.

A dietary mismatch

Agriculture produces plenty of food, but not necessarily the right types

If everyone on the planet wanted to eat a healthy diet, there wouldn’t be enough fruit and vegetables to go around. A team of researchers at the University of Guelph compared global agricultural production with nutritionists’ consumption recommendations and found a drastic mismatch. “We simply can’t all adopt a healthy diet under the current global


A new research project from Europe could address the question of how to feed humans in space.

Space… the final farming frontier

Treatment with one plant hormone appears to make space farming possible

With scarce nutrients and weak gravity, growing potatoes on the moon or on other planets seems unimaginable. But the plant hormone strigolactone could make it possible, plant biologists from the University of Zurich have shown. The hormone supports the symbiosis between fungi and plant roots, thus encouraging plants’ growth — even under the challenging conditions

Installation of a water control box.

Box it up

Researchers say ‘control boxes’ could limit nitrate run-off 
from tile drains

Tile drainage is a boon in a wet spring but it can also increase nitrate run-off into nearby waterways and eventually lakes and even the ocean. The answer, when the problem was first discovered in the 1980s, was to develop “edge of field” practices, keeping saturated strips of natural landscape near streams to remove nitrates,

This map shows how North America appeared just over 12,000 years ago. During the Pleistocene, repeated glaciations occurred.

Farmers prevented the ice age

If it weren’t for the methane and carbon dioxide emissions of early farmers the world would look much different

Millenia ago, ancient farmers cleared land to plant wheat and maize, potatoes and squash. They flooded fields to grow rice. They began to raise livestock. And unknowingly, they may have been fundamentally altering the climate of the Earth. A study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides new evidence that ancient farming practices led to


Rikard Landberg says it’s eating enough whole grains, not what type, 
that fights diabetes.

All whole grains fight diabetes

New research says the most important thing is 
that you eat enough of them

It doesn’t matter if it’s rye, oats, or wheat. As long as it is whole grain, it can prevent Type 2 diabetes. This is the finding of a new study from Swedish researchers from the Chalmers University of Technology. The ability to use whole grains for prevention of Type 2 diabetes — previously sometimes known

Washington State University soil scientist John Reganold is part of an international team that found nearly one-third of the world’s farms have adopted more environmentally friendly practices while continuing to be productive.

Agriculture improving environmentally

More than a third of the world’s farms have already taken steps to lower their environmental impact while staying productive

When it comes to agriculture, things are getting a little better all the time. At least so says a consortium of 17 scientists in five countries who found nearly a third of the world’s farms have adopted more environmentally friendly practices while remaining productive. The global assessment analyzed farms that use some form of “sustainable